Clean Energy Council: Renewables can take the heat
Clean Energy Council Deputy Chief Executive Kane Thornton offers a rebuttal to the anti-renewable narrative in the wake of last week’s heatwave in Melbourne.
The prolonged temperatures seemed to have a lot of naysayers hot under the collar, all keen to have their opinions on renewables like solar and wind heard. “We need power the most during times of extreme temperature, yet our increasing reliability on renewables lets us down,” claimed Senator John Madigan, seemingly oblivious to the evidence that contributions from solar panels saved our electricity grid from exceeding the highest peak consumption on record.
Thornton explains that the renewables performed throughout the heatwave was more or less in keeping with the rest of the year, and says we have the Renewable Energy Target (RET) to thank for helping us cope with record breaking energy consumption. “Despite the fact that the aim of the RET is to reduce the carbon intensity of our electricity system rather than deal with peak demand, these contributions were a big help during the four-day summer scorcher.”
Renewable energy efficiency fell in to the spotlight, with wind power generation seemingly down in South Australia (despite still providing almost 20% of the state’s energy usage). Thornton argues that as with most things, technologies like solar and wind can be affected by extreme temperatures, “The public transport system went into virtual meltdown in Melbourne and people were asked to leave work early to avoid peak hour – a similar concept to peak demand in the electricity market.”
Delivering a network that can comfortably handle these peak energy demands has been labelled a mistake by energy experts, claiming that the cost is far too prohibitive. Solar panels and other renewables, combined with smart energy conservation during electricity spikes offers an immediate and common sense solution. Thornton highlights a recent trials of smart technologies, including an Air Conditioning Trial conducted in Perth that, “helped households save between a quarter to a third of their overall energy use by allowing their air conditioners to be cycled on and off remotely during peak periods using smart grid technology – without affecting their comfort levels.”
